The Greatest Gift
by Ellie Fabgay
Summary: For Christmas, Hermione wants to let everyone know she and Draco have been secretly dating for several years, but that isn't so easy. AU sixth year, one-shot, fluffy.


Finally getting started on posting my holiday-themed Dramione fics and this just so happens to be the first one I ever published! I wrote this one-shot for the livejournal community dramionedrabble during the 2008 holiday movie quote challenge. We had to pick a number then were given a secret prompt so I chose my favorite number 23 and got the quote "great bouncing icebergs" from _Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer_. This is certainly a loose interpretation of it.

**Warnings**: set during HBP, but the storyline makes it AU

_Disclaimer_: I don't own any of the characters you recognize nor am I making profit off of this. Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and I'm just a poor college student.

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><p>Hermione sat in the snow and stared at the frozen lake sullenly. She had just had a fight with Ron about her choice in men. He couldn't understand why his friend was so secretive lately and he wanted to put an end to it. He had the nerve to bring Harry into the conversation and try to maneuver Harry onto his side. Thankfully, Harry had taken no part in the fight and told Ron that Hermione was a big girl who could certainly take care of herself no matter what life threw at her. Once Harry had left, Hermione had looked guiltily at Ron and told him to have a good date with Lavender before she walked off.<p>

Hermione looked up when she heard the mutterings of a familiar voice. She turned around and saw the person she had been waiting to see all day. She just couldn't understand what had taken him so long. Seeing a pair of skates in his hand, she decided that he had been looking for those.

Draco stood in front of her and threw the skates to the ground. "Why am I here again, Granger?" he asked, crossing his arms and pouting.

"We have a date, but why do you have only one pair of skates?" Hermione replied, looking at him curiously.

"I wanted to show off," Draco said, sitting in front of her.

She cocked her eyebrow. "We should be doing something together, y'know."

He was tying the laces of his first skate. "Do _you_ like to skate?" He raised his eyebrow as well.

"Not particularly." She scrunched her nose sourly.

"Good, because I like to show off," Draco said, standing up when he had both skates on.

Walking over to the frozen lake, he took the covers off his skates and stepped onto the ice hesitantly. He turned his head and winked at Hermione, who smiled and stood up to get a better look. Draco was fairly rusty with his moves at first, but he was soon remembering what he had practiced for most of his childhood and pre-teen years.

Hermione smiled as she stood at the edge of the lake and watched him. The she heard a peculiar cracking sound. Focusing on the ice, Hermione looked alarmed when she saw deep cracks in the ice. Looking at Draco, he was skating in a continuous circle and it was about to break …

Draco screamed loudly and Hermione quickly ran for him. As she got close to him, his head was bobbing up and down as he gasped for air and attempted to yell for help again.

Hermione knelt in front of him. "Draco, give me your hand," she said, holding out her hand.

Draco shakily lifted his hand out of the water, but his head sunk down beneath the ice cold water. Hermione held onto his hand tightly and struggled as she pulled him out of the water. Once his body was halfway onto the ice, Draco pulled himself out of the water and rested his head on Hermione's legs.

Hermione stroked his wet hair frantically. "Did you know that I love you?" she asked.

Draco's teeth chattered as he looked up at her. "Granger, what are you saying?" he asked.

"Why can't we go public with this? It's been three damned years and I don't want to continue lying." She looked at him expectantly.

"Isn't this enough?" Draco asked, wrapping her coat around his chest tightly. "I thought we both agreed to keep this secret."

"Didn't you say you'd give me an elaborate gift this year for Christmas? Going public would be perfect, actually."

Draco stood up and even though he stumbled, he kept a straight face. Hermione looked at him sadly. "We can't go public right now, Hermione," he said softly, keeping her coat tightly on his body. "It would …"

Hermione abruptly stood up and took a deep breath. She touched his cold cheek tenderly. "Don't say anything," she said. "I understand." She smiled and walked away, hugging her body for more warmth.

Both realized that Draco was still afraid to say "I love you" after these three years of a secret relationship.

Hermione sat in the Gryffindor Common Room for the rest of the afternoon, focusing on her schoolwork. Harry and Ron looked at her worriedly, but she refused to talk to them or anyone else for that matter.

Draco, on the other hand, was sitting alone in his dorm and contemplating how he could get into Hermione's good graces once again. Her red coat was still drying in front of a small fire and he had been staring at it all day since he had gotten back into the castle. Pansy had seen him wearing the coat and asked him pryingly which of his whores had given him the coat. Draco simply pushed her aside and continued walking.

Suddenly, Blaise Zabini, Draco's best mate, came into the dorm and stood in front of him. "Draco, you need to do something to get back with your girl," he said. Blaise was the only person Draco trusted to know about his secret relationship with Hermione.

Draco looked up at his friend and nodded slightly. "Yes, I know," he said. "Blaise, would you help me with something?"

Not even a moment later they both had matching smirks on their faces.

At dinner that night, Hermione was sitting in between Ron and Harry, who were both talking animatedly, but Hermione was simply playing with her food. Ginny looked at her worriedly, but Hermione would always say that she was simply feeling a bad rumble in her stomach. Ron even tried to talk to her, but Hermione told him to turn his attention to Lavender before she would begin screeching unhappily.

Feeling a tap on her shoulder, she turned around and saw Blaise grinning at her. They had become friends since Draco had told him about the relationship, but they had never spoken to each other in public.

"B-Blaise, what're you doing over here?" Hermione whispered harshly.

Blaise simply pointed to the doorway and all what Hermione saw was mistletoe. Looking more closely and saw a familiar figure walking towards the door. She gasped when she saw Draco with a small box.

When Draco saw Hermione, he wordlessly told her to come to him. She looked around and saw her friends (the whole student body, actually) staring at her. Blaise gave her a wink and she immediately stood up and walked swiftly towards Draco. He caught her in his arms and kissed her … in front of all of their classmates.

They pulled away and smiled at each other.

"That was the best Christmas present ever," Hermione said.

"I have one more present," Draco said. Hermione watched as he pulled out a silver necklace with an emerald pendant. "For my beautiful girlfriend."

Hermione gasped and kissed him again. "_Now_, it's the best Christmas present ever."

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><p>Read and review if you please!<p> 


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